Do these things have their own volume controls? How do you control them using a remote? Do you need a receiver too? Right now I am using PC speakers with my TV. They sound fine, but you have to stand up and cross the room to change the volume. But I need something that works without a receiver. Thanks.
Yes. With a remote. No.
To be less facetious, most of them take HDMI and optical in, and have their own remotes, but if you’re using HDMI you can control them with HDMI-CEC.
Mine has Bluetooth as well. The only annoying aspect is you have to switch it’s input, so I have to switch manual between my Dot and my TV.
My TV may be too old.
http://tv.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/osram_sylvania/lc320sl1.html
OTOH, turning on my blueray player turns my TV on too. Is that a positive sign?
Your tv doesn’t appear to have either optical or HDMI (via ARC) audio out, so no sound bar for you, unfortunately.
Soundbars are great. Have one now, had one on my previous TV. Bluetooth connection, though that means you have to manually switch when you use the headphones (and then switch back again, because when the headphones are turned off it defaults to TV speakers). Ours is wall-mounted, and sounds really good (to my ears at least, it’s certainly not high end). Essentially, they have a subwoofer and sort of emulate/fake a multispeaker set up pretty well. Once it’s connected ,the regular remote handles it for volume.
I have several set-ups in my home. I have a soundbar, solo, a soundbar with a subwoofer, a full surround sound / receiver set-up and also a built in Bluray Surround system too. These were also purchased at various times over the years, and one of my TVs is pushing I think 7 years now.
Anyway, if you don’t want to spend a lot but still get a good boost to the weak TV speakers, I recommend the soundbar plus the sub-woofer combo. And if you are in the market, January and February are also very good times of year to look at a new TV. 32 inches should be ultra cheap although you could easily go a little bigger.
Thanks, guys. I will wait until I have a new TV.
You could still get a sound bar with your current TV, it just wouldn’t be the most convenient setup.
I have a Vizio sound bar, it has HDMI, optical, and component inputs on the sound bar itself, and a single output to the TV. There may be models with more inputs, so depending on what you have plugged into your TV now, you may be able to have some or all of those things plugged into a sound bar, with a single HDMI out from the sound bar into the TV. Then you’d leave your TV input alone, and just change inputs on the sound bar.
But yeah, you’re not going to get all-in-one remote magic on that kind of setup.
Here is an example deal.
VIZIO 43 Inch LED Smart TV D43f-E1 HDTV - W/ Free $100 DELL Promo Gift card $299.99
And, of course, they sell soundbars. You might be able to do better, but around 300 for a TV and sound bar isn’t terrible.
deal taken from SD.